Crying's Not for Us

It seemed like such a good idea. On the last Sunday of a summer where the weather has been nothing short of fabulous, a trip to a not-so-far-away national park for a moderate hike to the largest waterfall in Maryland, which also happens to be in the same park where my mom went to summer camp 66 years ago?

It was such a no brainer that Josh got up early and Riley and Seiyoung drove in the opposite direction of their final destination so that we could all enjoy the outing together. We had sandwiches and dogs and we gleefully watched the car thermometer plunge from 93 to 91 to 87, 85, 83 as we traveled first north, and then up the mountain. It was only a little sticky as we headed into the woods and began our climb.

The tall trees kept it shady, and we hardly noticed the gathering clouds. The patter of drops on the leaves high above our heads was not in the least alarming; the canopy kept us mostly dry, but as we continued steadily on so did the rain, and soon we found ourselves stopped and huddled near the trunks of trees, trying to stay dry.

The trail was soon a wash, and we reluctantly decided to turn around. As impossible as it seemed, it poured ever harder as we made our way back to the car.  Now the saturated forest offered us no shelter and soon we were completely drenched ourselves, literally dripping.

In a you-can't-make-this-up twist, the rain let up the last hundred yards to the trail head, and we emerged from the woods into brilliant sunshine, wet, really wet, incredulously wet, but not unhappy in the least.

Let's Get this Party Started

Back when I started teaching, the pre-service week for teachers was only four days. We reported to school on the Monday before Labor Day, had a few meetings, worked in our classrooms, and went home Thursday afternoon for a four day weekend. After the intensity of preparing for the new year, waiting four more days seemed agonizing.  And so it continues to this day. Although Friday off is long gone, that nervous anticipation lingers, and all day long I've been restless and at loose ends.  In a few days the voices of children will illuminate my days, but for now everything seems drained of the bright summer cheer it radiated just last week. 

Mastery Objective

WHO:      I will
WHAT:    let go of all the frustrations of the day
DO:          by spending the evening with people I love
HOW:      and then sleeping soundly through the night.

New Kid in Town

He swaggered down the school hallway with a faux hawk and shades, confidently directing his sister to where she might find the answers she was seeking."Let's do this!"

There's talk on the street; it sounds so familiar

I long ago gave up trying to engineer which kids would and wouldn't be on me team at school. It's human nature, I think, to want to exercise control when it is possible, and there were always all sorts of brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and nephews and nieces of all sorts of folks that I thought would or would not make for a better year.

Great expectations, everybody's watching you

Sometimes I was right and sometimes I was disappointed, and a few years ago I realized that perhaps it would be best if I left it all up to chance. So this year when the new students and their families came for our annual sixth grade open house there were definitely a few familiar faces I was a little sorry to see heading toward one of the other teams, but there were a lot of fresh faces I enjoyed meeting, too.

People you meet, they all seem to know you

 One was Leslie, a quiet girl who seemed understandably anxious about middle school. I did my best to put her at ease with a friendly smile and a few wise cracks, but it was her younger brother who was my best audience. "I love this place!" he gushed. "I'm in fourth grade, but I can't wait to come here!"

"Well, I can't wait til you get here!" I said.

"And I want you for my teacher," he told me.

I just might have to make an exception to that hands-off rule.

Johnny come lately, the new kid in town
Everybody loves you, so don't let them down

Come and Get Your Love

Hey! What's the matter with your head?

Putting one's classroom together again after dismantling it a couple  months back is not hard, exactly, but it can be time consuming. I'm not much of a linear thinker myself, and so all the little chores distract me, especially since my mind is on the million other things I need to get done by the end of the week.

Hey, what's the matter with your mind and all your sighin?

This morning, after I hung a few things on my wall I paused to take a picture of my newest piece of art, a framed print that a friend of mine gave me from her office when she retired last June. I meant to post it on Facebook so that she could see how nice it looked in my room, but that particular social media is blocked on the school network, so after a couple of tries I set my iPad aside and continued working.

Find it, find it, c'mon and find it

I had completely forgotten all about the picture when I got home tonight, but it was out there on it's own after all. My friend recognized her print right away, but below it hung the plaque I got for being teacher of the year back in 2006, and that got a few comments from current colleagues-- snarky at first, but genuinely complimentary in the end.

Rockin Robin

Tweedily deedily dee, tweedily deedily dee

In a year of many new technology initiatives for our school system, there is one that seems to have been embraced whole-heartedly by senior administration.

He rocks in the tree tops all day long

It's not iPads for students,

Hoppin and boppin and a-singin his song

and it's not getting the bugs out of our student information system.

All the little birdies on J-bird Street

Someone at the Ed Center seems to think that 140 characters is the perfect way to connect with students, educators, and families alike.

Love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet

#APSback2school

If I Could Save Time in a Bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do

Yesterday, I spent the last day of my summer vacation canning tomatoes and making pickles and kimchi.

Is to save every day 'til eternity passes away

Then Heidi, Josh and I went to Bill and Emily's house for a family dinner with them and Riley and Treat. There was grilled steak and succotash, all from the farmers market, with home made ice cream sandwiches for dessert. We stayed at the table talking long after we all should have been preparing to go to work and school this morning.

But there never seems to be enough time to do the things we want to do once we find them

At least, if summer can't last forever, we gave it a lovely send off.